Morning Pages [171/365]

Lately, I’ve come across the concept of Morning Pages, more often online. It’s been quite some time since I saw the first video, but yesterday I was reminded of it again, in Medium.

The basic idea is to write three pages in long-hand when you get up in the morning. A brain dump … a stream of consciousness. I just tried it for the first time. Three pages in long-hand sounds like quite the undertaking these days, but it was surprisingly easy. Not saying this is something I’ll commit to, but I don’t think it’s a bad idea. To put one’s thoughts and/or worries down on paper might help clear your mind.

They’re not supposed to be artful in any way, and not supposed to be read by anyone. I found it rather interesting what the guy wrote in Medium.

The practice of Morning Pages is simple: write three pages, long-hand, upon (or nearly upon) waking. No thinking, no analyzing, no stressing. Just write. Put pen to paper and squiggle it around until it forms words. What you write matters little. What matters is just that you write. Get whatever is at the forefront of your mind out of your mind and place it onto the page. Do not hold back. Do not judge. And do not stop until you’ve hit three pages.

When I tried this, now this morning, I didn’t stay focused on “just writing for the sake of it”, so I kept judging myself for all kinds of reasons — poor choice of words, my own handwriting and stuff like that. That, could easily be overcome, I think. Again, I’m not saying this is something I’ll commit to — one would think I’ve committed enough with this postaday-thing! What I’m saying is that it took a lot less time than I’d expected, and, at least for me, there’s a difference between typing on the keyboard and putting pen to paper.

The time it did take?! Sure, perhaps fifteen minutes or more (didn’t look), but time is all a matter of priorities anyway. If I felt this was something I’d want to do, I’d most definitely prioritize it over looking at funny GIFs in Facebook. This might not be ideal when you have five kids you need to feed breakfast, getting them into daycare and yourself off to work. I wouldn’t even dream of how they could find the time for this, but for a person like me, it’s definitely doable.

When I did it, this morning, I did it without any kind of commitment — it was a pure test — and it actually felt pretty good. Perhaps it’s like “yoga in writing” … at least it was relaxing, and had a good feel to it.

Yes, your comparison of free writing to yoga actually makes sense – it is a zenning out exercise 😉 Now, my trouble is that the first thing I do after I get up is to yoga, so I wonder if I should try and queue a free writing exercise after that. While I am usually at leisure to take two hours with my morning routine (the usual hygiene, plus up to a hour of yoga and the inevitable first morning coffee + first morning smoke, for which I like to take plenty of time), I’d hate to spend the whole day just taking care of myself like I have no work to do.

I did it again this morning; wrote three pages (BEFORE I even opened the lid of the computer!) Had coffee and smoke while I wrote, as I smoke inside. Forgot to look at the time, but it took one mug of coffee + two smokes. It actually felt very good! More so than I’d expected. I too spend two hours usually in the morning. Sometimes three LOL

You know what also feels good? To hear that I’m not the only crazy person who needs two to three hours to get up and get ready before even starting to do anything. Even without doing yoga, I’d need to set my alarm at least ninety minutes before the time for leaving the house (and I’d be in a hurry). I don’t get how people who get up half any hour before leaving the house do that.

This whole Internet thing has added at least one hour to it, but even before … I needed my time. I don’t know what I did — I think I might have read the paper rather thoroughly + the usual stuff. Takes some time for the coffee to kick in too 🙂

Hi there, I love morning pages, and you can even say I don’t know what to write . It is just about clearing your mind. I mentioned morning pages on a blog post I did on journaling in May 2016. I included a youtube video

Thank you 🙂 It was probably in that post I saw a video, and it was not the one I linked to here … it was a younger girl. I think, if I were to do this, I’d have to do it first thing … at least before I go online.

I first heard about this exercise as an alternative form of meditation. I find it difficult to sit quietly and try not to think, but turns out giving those thoughts an outlet without dwelling on them works wonderfully! It’s a bit more sporadic than it’s “supposed to be,” but I just go with what works whenever. I like how you phrased it above – “yoga in writing” – that sounds about right.